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High Tea and Tea Trade – Piet Hein, the Pirate of Delfshaven

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A brief visit to Delfshaven allowed me to linger along port side, and have an almost idyllic drink. The “almost” moment came as a consequence of being disturbed by a group of summer-time wasps, attracted to the nearby High Teas that came with multi-layered trays of mini-cakes. 

Later I learned how tea was at the centre of that extraordinarily wealthy era of the Netherlands – the Golden Age. Perhaps the wasps are a symbol of the current debate in the Netherlands about how a once popular version of history can with hindsight be seen in controversial terms.

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Grianan of Aileach – How to avoid the nostalgia of authenticity

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Discovering the Grianan of Aileach was a shock. Why had this impressive and beautiful structure failed to knock on the door of my general knowledge? There it curved in front of me, so extraordinarily well preserved. What a mystery! Yet a small amount of research later revealed some of the reasons why this site has not been wholeheartedly promoted by history experts. 

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Ballycastle – War, Water, and Wall art

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Like many other resorts, Ballycastle succeeds to remind people about war.  Whether you are in Carrickfergus or in Cannes, you must call attention to the World Wars.  This is a golden rule. No tourist may be permitted to mentally wander away from the girls in bikinis or sandcastles, when there are trenches and tanks to be considered.

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The monks who were engineers – Nendrum monastic site

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There are some wonderful Ireland-focused blogs. Perhaps we need an official directory of high-standard personal blogs pertaining to the island. This one is a charm – rmchapple.blogspot.com by archaeologist Robert M Chapple, which contains a wide variety of engaging topics. I certainly will not be trying to compete with someone who keeps a catalogue of Radiocarbon Determinations and Dendrochronological Dates….

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Ballynoe Stone Circle

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The Ballynoe Stone circle was not built for the selfie-inclined tourist. The site is found on an average Ulster farm, not unlike that where I grew up. The view is less impressive than that from other prehistoric sites. The people whose final remains were interred in this site were not adamant about having an eternal view that matched with the expectations of a 21st Ulsterman like myself.

Ballynoe Stone Circle
Ballynoe Stone Circle

To state the obvious, the most apparent feature of this monument is the circle of standing stones. And yet, even with a 33 m in diameter and some of the stones 2m high, the monument is much less impressive in a photograph compared to standing there looking across the plain.

Ballynoe Stone Circle
Ballynoe Stone Circle

The information sign at the entrance says it may have been originally surrendered by a ditch, and a pair of stones just outside the western edge of the circle could mark an entrance.

Ballynoe Stone Circle
Ballynoe Stone Circle

For someone with scant knowledge of archeology, certain things are still obvious. The building of this site requires much work and also planning. Hey lads let’s kill ourselves moving massive boulders into yonder field, and then figure out what we will do with them. These were people who only knew one thing – how to work hard. They had to find and make their own food, and had no time and energy to mess around moving boulders. This site was extremely important to this community. It was a site built to last, which it clearly has done. And it has a shape and structure and direction (north-south).

What I could not capture, Yuneechex (on http://www.megalithic.co.uk) captured this extraordinary aerial photo.  What you cannot capture on the ground is now apparent here – the symmetry, a structure, and an enormous number of back-breaking large stones.

From: http://www.megalithic.co.uk/user.php?op=userinfo&uname=Yuneechex

Several commentators have noted the similarity between Ballynoe and circles at Lough Gur, at Swinside in Cumbria and La Menec in Brittany. The stones would probably have stood much closer and upright to each other.

References

Ballynoe Stone Circle – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballynoe_Stone_Circle

Ballynoe  – http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=657

 

 

Cannes is a place for happy thoughts

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I took a carefree August-time stroll down the La Croisette promenade of Cannes.  These are two kilometres of pure laid-back stupor.  A dense assortment of casinos, beach-side restaurants, yachts, every kind of chair, with a sumptuous array of plants and flowers. Cannes feels impermanent, as if it were built in 1920, and my first surprise is that of it’s heritage. It is much older than I had imagined.  But if there is a self-consciousness in this city, it is one that mirrors the validation of tourists. This was a city built for visitors, and has evolved to meet their needs.

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Chester: Can anyone tell me where is the Port?

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I have made two quick visits to Chester. It is such a lovely city. Chester Rows, the Roman Walls, the Amphitheatre, Grosvenor Park, and the Canal Basins (and apparently there is even a Zoo!). But there was one thing that I could not find…… the Port! For hundreds of years before the prominence of Liverpool, Chester was the primary port on the north-west coast of England. And yet when I asked several local people for directions, they all said something like this: “I have lived all my life here, I should know the answer to that, but I’m not sure.” It was only after I returned home and did some research did I learn that this was more complex question than I had imagined.

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